Five Charged in Drone Plot to Attack White House UFC Event

On June 15, 2026, thousands of people packed the South Lawn of the White House to watch UFC Freedom 250. President Trump sat in the front row, marking his 80th birthday and the country's 250th anniversary. What most of that crowd didn't know is that federal agents had spent the previous week scrambling to take apart a group that allegedly wanted to turn the night into something horrific.

The Justice Department says five men planned a two-step attack: fly explosive-loaded drones over the crowd to spark panic, then pick off people with rifles as they ran for the exits. All five were arrested over a single weekend across four states. Here's what has come out so far, and it's a strange, sprawling story.

The plan: drones first, then snipers

According to court papers, the group split the attack into two phases. Phase one was the drones. They allegedly wanted to fly small drones loaded with explosives over the north side of the event to force a mass evacuation. Phase two was worse. As people fled south, snipers were supposed to be waiting at predetermined spots to shoot "high value targets" in the crowd.

One member laid out the math in a chat. He said the group needed $1,300 and "5 teams of 3," with each team made up of one sniper, one support lookout, and one drone operator. He said the cash would cover "drones and charges" and told everyone to pitch in. Another suspect typed two words that got investigators' attention: "Pensilvania avenue." Agents later described the setup as a planned ambush of fleeing civilians.

The five men charged

The men named in the charges are spread out across the map. Tycen C. Proper, 19, is from Danville, Ohio. Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, is from Kidder, Missouri. Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, lives in Omaha, Nebraska. The last two, Bryan Omar Roa, 24, and Michael Alan Thomas, 32, both come from California.

Each one has been arrested and is being held while the case moves forward. The arrests happened in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and California, and the cases were filed in federal courts in all four of those areas. Every defendant faces at least one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Proper, the teenager, picked up three extra charges on top of that.

The target list read like a power ranking

Court filings say one suspect shared a screenshot listing people the group wanted to hit. The names on it were not small. "1" was believed to mean President Trump. "2" was Vice President JD Vance. "N" pointed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and "Musk" referred to Elon Musk.

The list didn't stop with the headliners. Prosecutors say it also named elected officials including Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, and members of West Virginia's congressional delegation. The filings describe a pile of grievances driving the group, from U.S. support for Israel to anger over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files to complaints about data centers. Trump was sitting in the front row at the actual event, which makes the whole thing read even darker.

It started with a mom calling the police

This case did not crack because of some high-tech surveillance net. It cracked because a worried mother picked up the phone. A relative of one of the suspects called local police near Cincinnati to report that their family member was talking about a vague plot in Washington.

That family member was Tycen Proper. His mother told the FBI he had been talking with a group she believed was using religion to manipulate him. The night of June 10, Proper was hospitalized with homicidal ideations after she called police in Danville. His parents said he had been making "concerning statements," including sympathetic comments about Adolf Hitler and anti-Semitic posts online. The next day, Proper allegedly told investigators he wanted to "jump-start" a revolution with an attack he had penciled in for June 14. That tip set everything in motion.

A TikTok group called 'Vanguard of the Old'

Before any of this got serious, it was just a chat. The men allegedly met through a TikTok group that called itself "Vanguard of the Old." That's where the recruiting and the early talk happened. The group complained about government corruption, the Epstein files, data centers, and a long list of other things.

Then, as plans got more specific, they moved off TikTok and onto encrypted apps like Signal. By early June, prosecutors say the encrypted chats had shifted toward real operational planning around UFC Freedom 250. The group set up a ranking system, from "tier 1" down to "tier 4." Tier 1 was people willing to put themselves in harm's way. The lower tiers covered getaway drivers, drone operators, supply runners, and the funders writing checks.

'Shepherd' was the alleged ringleader

Investigators say the person pulling the strings went by the handle "Shepherd." Proper reportedly identified Shepherd as the leader and described him as "aggressive in tactical planning," with people believing he was a former member of the military.

So how did they unmask him? Agents filed a request with TikTok to identify the user @unitedworldwide444. TikTok handed over an IP address, and that traced back to a home in Omaha. That's how Abraham Alvarez ended up being identified as Shepherd. He now faces charges of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.

What agents found in the suspects' homes

The searches turned up real hardware, not just talk. At Eskridge's place in Missouri, agents recovered rifles, a shotgun, a pistol, and other tactical gear. In Ohio, authorities found thousands of rounds of ammunition and more weapons at Proper's home.

Proper's father told investigators his son had recently blown $3,000 of his high school graduation money on camping gear, ballistic plates, a new shotgun, "lots" of ammunition, extra magazines, and plate carriers. Out in California, the family of Bryan Roa believed he intended to do something violent because he had been shooting his weapons more and more, and his behavior had changed. The FBI says it recovered firearms, ammunition, and encrypted messages tied to 19 people suspected of being involved, who shared maps, photos of the area, and talk about escape routes.

Kash Patel 'jumped the gun'

Here's where the story gets messy inside the government. The Secret Service and FBI had been working the case together and had planned to unseal it and make a joint announcement on Tuesday afternoon. Instead, FBI Director Kash Patel posted about it on X at 6:50 a.m., claiming credit and saying the attacks were "stopped cold."

Secret Service officials were not happy. Three people familiar with the matter said Patel "jumped the gun," pointing out that court records were still sealed and roughly 10 suspects had not been arrested yet when his post went live. The agency's No. 2 official accused the FBI director of a leak that could put the ongoing investigation at risk. It's not often you see two federal agencies trade jabs in public like this.

More suspects could still be out there

The five arrests do not appear to close the book. Deputy Secret Service Director Matthew Quinn said flatly, "It was an active plot, and it's ongoing. There are still suspects at large, and we're going to work it until everyone's been identified." Reports put the broader group as high as 23 people, and authorities were seeking at least 10 more for questioning.

There's also a real question about how close this ever got to happening. Vice President JD Vance downplayed it on TV, saying there was heavy security at the event and "the plot was like, not that advanced. They weren't in town." Whether the men could have actually pulled off what they typed in a chat is still unclear.

What the five men are facing now

All five are charged with at least one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and Proper has three more charges stacked on top. The cases are filed in the Southern District of Ohio, the Western District of Missouri, the District of Nebraska, and the Central District of California. If convicted on the conspiracy charge, each man faces a maximum prison sentence.

For now, the event itself went off without incident. Trump watched the fights from the front row, thousands of fans filled the South Lawn, and nobody in the crowd had any idea agents had been racing the clock all week. The Justice Department framed the case as one piece of a wider pattern of threats aimed at high-profile political gatherings. The investigation is still open, and officials say more arrests could be coming.